Precision agriculture. Study of spatio-temporal variability in agrosystems

The United Nations estimates that the world's population could reach 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. If these projections hold true, global food demand is bound to increase significantly. Even if food security is partly a distribution problem, it would be a shame not to also encourage increased food production, as no single approach will be fully effective in combating food insecurity. This is a colossal challenge, since the agricultural sector has to cope with this growing demand for food while taking into account critical societal and environmental issues (water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, land degradation...) and being economically viable in the long term. Ecologically intensive agriculture has been a response to all these challenges. Although some criticize the two adjectives for being incompatible, ecologically intensive agriculture seeks to increase food production while limiting environmental pressures. In simpler terms, ecologically intensive approaches aim to produce "more" with "less". Precision agriculture, a scientific discipline that seeks to better measure, quantify, describe and understand the variabilities inherent in production systems, using information and communication technologies (ICT), could help move in this direction. Here's a critical look at a discipline that has the wind in its sails and is still making waves.